Solutions for mobile marketing have made significant strides as marketers test new ad formats and get a better grasp on mobile marketing campaigns. No real surprise there is it?
Galileo once said that “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Great marketers uncover those obvious, but unexpected truths to win the audience’s hearts and minds.
Brands and marketers undoubtedly stepped up their mobile advertising efforts during 2014 with campaigns tied to solid results.
Additionally, a bigger focus on rich media, tablets, social media and native advertising points to marketers increasingly thinking beyond basic static banner ads.
Related post: 11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy and focus only on the things that work.
National Geographic Channel took a unique approach to co-viewing with a mobile advertising campaign that drove tune-ins for a documentary about President Lincoln.
National Geographic Channel worked with Millennial Media and media hub / Mullen on a tablet-only campaign that leveraged at-home Wi-Fi networks.
The day that the program premiered, creative began running to target at-home tablet users. Once the program began, the creative changed to give consumers a co-viewing experience.
For example, the mobile ad’s video and text dynamically updated as the show aired to reflect different scenes in the program. The tablet-only creative
By targeting at-home Wi-Fi networks for tablets specifically, the goal behind the campaign was to reach mobile users at home who were most likely to be near a TV and to serve these users additional relevant information via their tablets.
Here is another very creative example:
Fleur, a florist shop in Chicago, puts a bucket full of bright balloons by the door of their shop both inside and out, with a handwritten sign that says: “Take a balloon.” That’s all.
No logos, no catch. It is just a small action to make people smile. Inside the store, it makes a pretty display, and outside the store, people are likely to ask where you got the balloon.
That’s a simple, fun way to get a conversation started without a marketing message. A bucket full of balloons is a bucket full of word of mouth memories waiting to happen. It doesn’t have to be branded or a part of a larger campaign — in fact, the simpler you make it, the better.
Location-based marketing is growing.
The North Face Location-Based Marketing Campaign
Let’s say you’re an avid hiker, biker, or mountain climber who just happens to be toddling around New York City (as you’re prone to do when you’re not climbing Everest).
The North Face recognizes that even when you’re scaling the canyons of New York City, climbing Everest is always on your mind.
So what did the outdoor clothing retailer do? It created a location-based marketing campaign using the Placecast ShopAlerts system.
Here’s how it works: assume you are the customer and see a poster inside a North Face store that says, “Opt-in for text alert promotions when you’re in our neighborhood. Opt-out at any time.”
You can send mobile marketing messages to people by using geo-locational technology to target people down to the neighborhood level.
Being the tech-savvy mountain climber that you are, you decide to whip out the old smartphone and opt-in. Once you’ve done so, the North Face uses geo-fencing to figure out your location.
Geo-fencing isn’t that complicated. It uses three cell phone towers to figure out where you are by bouncing signals off your smartphone. The phone company is doing that all the time and now marketers are using the technology to make their messages even more relevant to the consumer.
Now that the North Face (and your phone company) knows where you are, it can send you a text message about special offers the next time you’re near one of its stores.
The text message might read, “Welcome to San Francisco. Save 25 percent on sleeping bags during our 24-hour Labor Day promotion.”
Or it might read, “Welcome to Katmandu! Stop on by and get 20 percent off ice crampons for your next trip to Everest!”
Location-based advertising, Bluetooth Marketing, and location-based services are the next big waves in mobile marketing, so keep an eye out on these innovative new marketing tools.
They worked for North Face and they’ll work for you, too.
Domino’s Pizza delivery app
Domino’s got burned early on in the social media by two rogue employees who uploaded a YouTube video that had a negative effect on its brand image.
So if there was ever a company that you’d expect to be afraid of new technologies like social media and mobile media, it would be Dominoes. But definitely not the case.
Domino’s Pizza keeps customer churn to a minimum by providing them an app that makes ordering pizza from Domino’s simple and easy.
But to the pizza chain’s credit, Domino’s has vigorously embraced social and mobile media. First, with an engaging TV and YouTube campaign that encouraged people to interact with the brand via multiple communications channels.
Second, with a surprisingly user-friendly mobile app that allows people to order pizza, customize their orders, and pay for them, all from their smartphones.
If you think about the actual complexity of ordering something as seemingly simple as a pizza, you’ll understand how challenging it was to design an app that an ordinary consumer could download and use in a matter of minutes.
Think about it: Domino’s offers dozens of different toppings, cheeses, crusts, and sauces, which have hundreds of millions of potential combinations.
Seriously, do the math. Yet the app makes the ordering process as simple and easy as possible.
Ford’ s mobile marketing campaigns
Ford made use of an excellent mobile marketing strategy to promote the release of its Escape and Taurus models.
All that was required was for people who wanted more information on the vehicles to send a text with the word ‘FORD’ to 63611.
These customers were contacted and asked which vehicle they wanted further information on and they were then asked to provide their names and local zip codes as well.
This info was sent to local Ford dealerships, where follow up calls were made to clients, resulting in an astounding 15.4% conversion rate. Amazing.
The bottom line
Make your marketing thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound. You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings.
Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind. Make it colorful and exciting. Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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